DIAGRAMMATIC DEFINITION OF PSYCHOLOGY

In a nutshell, we can deduce that psychology is the scientific study of the relationship between the cause and the effect of a behaviour of an organism. Or it is the scientific study of the relationship between the cause and effect of both the overt (observable) and covert (unobservable) behaviours of animals (like humans). It is science or scientific because it uses sequential, orderly, and vigorous logical methods, processes and procedures both empirical (experimental) and non-experimental for data collection, analysis and conclusion.

This means science is not a body (field) of study but a way of study: it is vigorous orderly, sequential and logical ways (methods, processes and procedures) of studying, fact finding and learning. It is more like logical and sequential set of methods than a body of knowledge. Psychologists, scientists and scholars use these logical methods in their studies and fact findings. If psychologists claim that psychology is a science of mind or is the scientific study of animals’ mind and their effects on their behaviours (both covert and overt), then what they mean is that psychology uses series of logical and empirical methods in studying the mind base on the overt (outward) behaviour.